CES 2020 Showed Us the Path to a Better Future
Yes, a lot of it was ridiculous. But a handful of tech trends seem like legitimately good news.
There’s a lot to be cynical about at CES. Behind the flashy hype and big promises, products often underdeliver or never materialize. And at worst, the tech sold as “innovation” on the conference floor winds up creating new problems in the world, like ubiquitous surveillance, misinformation, or incomplete security.
But it’s also true that sometimes technology actually does end up making our lives better — that’s why we’re drawn to it in the first place. These are a few of the trends I observed walking the show floor that I can say, with sober eyes, have a decent shot of having a positive impact in 2020.
5G could free you from your home internet
There is a lot of murky marketing and reason for skepticism around 5G technology. For example, some carriers like AT&T have started calling a slightly improved 4G network “5G” when it really isn’t. And 5G will likely not, for instance, give you download speeds of 25 gigabits per second, despite what some field tests have technically shown. Under the right circumstances, however, 5G networks do hold a lot of promise. Rolling out faster home internet is an expensive…
